Picture if you will Talking Heads legendary "Stop Making Sense" concert film/live album, but if it was almost entirely made up of post-70's King Crimson performed by a supergroup with a foundation of original members.
That's what you can expect with LIVE the debut of BEAT a live concert captured on video by Scrote (aka Angelo Bundini) with editing from lots involved and committed to record by Scrote, mixed by Bob Clearmountain/Ira Becker and mastered by Emily Lazar/Bob DeMaa. The album/Blu-ray is from the extensive USA/Mexico/South America tour they went on between 2024 and 2025, which captured BEAT at full flight.
But who is BEAT, well it stems from a conversation between Angelo Bundini and Adrian Belew, they wanted to do something related to King Crimson, with Fripp effectively finishing the band, long time vocalist/guitarist Belew wanted to continue the legacy some way so the idea was to pay tribute to the three albums where he and bass man extraordinaire Tony Levin made their first appearances Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair.
Joining Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford firstly as Disciple but then going back to King Crimson as the noted jazz/prog act embraced New Wave, Post Punk, World Music and rhythmic discordance with complex funk arrangements. As these elements became more used in music inspired by them and Belew and Levin alumni such as Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel, you could say that by Three Of A Perfect Pair they were venturing into what pop was in 1983.
By 1984 this version of Crimson was done but those three albums are a very defined transformation in the King Crimson and the Belew/Levin story as if it wasn't for the appregiated guitars of Belew and Fripp, the uses of Friptronics and the Chapman Stick playing of Levin, then there would be whole host of bands out there that simply wouldn't exist. For instance listen to Elephant Talk and tell me you don't hear Primus, I dare you.
Anyway this three album, three year period has gone on to influence countless bands over the years and was put to bed relatively violently so it's safe to say there's a lot of love for these records from fans. It makes sense then that Belew would want to focus on this era especially when Tony Levin was in on bass, but who to get to fill the other roles? Well on guitar it's the man who has cultivated a career as one of the most innovative guitar players around Steve Vai and behind the kit is Tool's percussion maestro Danny Carey, making BEAT a super duper group.
The first thing you notice is the fluidity, the foursome are all top level musicians and virtuosity comes in droves with every single cut, from the intertwining guitars on Frame By Frame, to the more hopeless romantic notions of Man With An Open Heart or they way they easily incorporate some mid 70's Crimson stuff such as Red or Larks Tongue In Aspic, all four are locked into every moment trying to be the best live band on the planet, which Fripp considered the 1981-1984 line up to be.
Buyer beware, unless you are fan of King Crimson, Primus, Frank Zappa or any of these experimental geniuses then BEAT will go over your head. However for any armchair musos or fans this is hell of a live treat of you couldn't get to any of the shows on the tour. LIVE is a stunning snapshot of top level musicians playing homage to half of their memberships history and the other halves inspiration. 9/10
Risen Atlantis Feat. Frank Beck - Power To The Past (Frontiers Music Srl)
Those with any sort of knowledge of traditional/heavy/power metal should know the name Frank Beck, he's been beside Kai Hansen in Gamma Ray since 2014 as a vocalist, his more soulful delivery a counterpoint to Hansen's snarl. With Gamma Ray on a bit of a hiatus due to Pumpkins United, Beck was ripe for a call from Frontiers about a new project on the label
In conversation with producer/songwriter/keyboardist/bassist and here second guitarist too, Alessandro Del Vecchio, he expressed a desire not to perform anything that may appear on a Gamma Ray record but take a more melodic style, namechecking the likes of Ronnie Atkins, Jorn Lande and Jeff Scott Soto as the major influences. Of course Del Vecchio and co-writer/guitarist Brett Jones have done exactly that tailoring the songs to fit the gritty vocals of Beck.
They along with drummer Mirko De Maio have delivered with a whole album of melodic metal, where there's a lot of the names mentioned above but done with Beck's own unique vocals. There's some muscular balladry on Trapped In Heaven, swaggering heavy rock on Sea Of Tranquillity but also some galloping power metal on the likes of Lost In Time and Glory For The Brace, which brings with Teutonic metal power and twin axe harmonies.
Another Frontiers collab project that results in gold this label so often have. Expect more from Beck and Risen Atlantis. 8/10
Kepler Ten - Random Number Generator: Episode 1 (White Star Records)
Formed by James Durand (vocals/bass/keys), Steve Hales (drums/piano) and Richie Cahill (guitars) in 2014, Kepler Ten evolved from a Rush tribute into a band of it's own that is influenced by Rush, Dream Theater and Queensryche.
Signing to Chris Hillman and John Mitchell’s White Star Records they have released two albums previously after that Ritchie left the band replaced by Mike Tillotson and then Alistair Bell. With family issues, the pandemic and isolation, Steve began writing a multi part story called Random Number Generator, the music was commented and now we have the first part of the concept in Episode 1.
Since then Alistair has left the band but his guitar remains a key part of this new 33 minute record, from the opening wash of cleans on Lost In The Binary, we're brought into this sinister, digital world of Kepler Ten, the guitars getting heavier after the keys come in, it's quite reminiscent of White Star Records founder John Mitchell's projects, so there's a continuity there as the very guitar driven track segues into some pulsating synths and percussion for Fracture.
With Fracture, Kepler Ten lean on that history of Rush, the song taking the form of some latter period Rush as well as often underrated Canadian act Tiles too. There's a real emotion that runs through this record, with tracks such as My Compass Rose, but even when they're going fully into some Dream Theater prog metal on The Truth And The Lie, the lyrics carry weight to them, creating the concept of alienation and digital dominance that this album handles.
Random Number Generator: Episode 1, is a beginning, setting out the storyline through six tracks, the most affecting of being acoustic Sobriquet, but they return to thumping electronic prog rocking on the 7 minute finale SuperVoid. It's a great return for Kepler Ten with this new record but going forward they'll be completing the next parts in their original guise as Richie has returned to the band.
So this next chapters may have more in common with their earlier records, or maybe they won't that's the excitement of progressive music and Kepler Ten for me. 8/10
Rubi Ate The Fig - Desert Electric (Self Released)
Some Bedouin Blues Rock now from the sort of artist that would feature heavily at WOMAD festival. Rubi Ate The Fig is the creation of vocalist/songwriter/guitarist/producer Sharon Eliashar, born in Jerusalem, raised in California, both of these cultural identities make their way into her songwriting with the blissful psych of the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, fused with Middle Eastern traditional elements that have been inspired by her time alongside the Bedouin in the Sinai desert.
With the experimental ear of Peter Gabriel, there's lots to like here for fans of Goat, Tinariwen and SOBO. Sharon states that all her songs are about "love, sex or death" and it's this dangerous mix of the erotic and exotic that draws you in with sultry atmospheres on tracks such as Gilgamesh, Breathe With Me Slowly and the Zeppelin-like drama of Caress The Moon.
This is Desert Electric after all so there's rock meets Middle East riffs coming from the incredibly talented band featuring Marc Mann (guitars/keys/vocals/orchestration/production) who is a long time collaborator of Danny Elfman, Rich Mouser (guitar/engineer/production) a noted engineer and player.
Ali Paris takes the Qanun, a 76-string Zither, that fills out the third lead instrument role getting some solo sections. Behind this is the bass/saz/cello of Miles Jay, the hand percussion (dumbeq/frame drum/riqq) from Polly Tapia Ferber and drums that come from Danny Montgomery who has performed with Percy Sledge and Taj Mahal.
This record has had a torrid history as the L.A wild fires meant much of the original recordings were lost, but they managed to piece together an album that skilfully blends multiple elements, the husky strains of Sharon's vocals carrying these love songs from the desert which have been a long time coming. If you've ever loved anything from The Tea Party then you'll love Rubi At The Fig, let's hope the next record doesn't take 5 years. 8/10
That's what you can expect with LIVE the debut of BEAT a live concert captured on video by Scrote (aka Angelo Bundini) with editing from lots involved and committed to record by Scrote, mixed by Bob Clearmountain/Ira Becker and mastered by Emily Lazar/Bob DeMaa. The album/Blu-ray is from the extensive USA/Mexico/South America tour they went on between 2024 and 2025, which captured BEAT at full flight.
But who is BEAT, well it stems from a conversation between Angelo Bundini and Adrian Belew, they wanted to do something related to King Crimson, with Fripp effectively finishing the band, long time vocalist/guitarist Belew wanted to continue the legacy some way so the idea was to pay tribute to the three albums where he and bass man extraordinaire Tony Levin made their first appearances Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair.
Joining Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford firstly as Disciple but then going back to King Crimson as the noted jazz/prog act embraced New Wave, Post Punk, World Music and rhythmic discordance with complex funk arrangements. As these elements became more used in music inspired by them and Belew and Levin alumni such as Talking Heads and Peter Gabriel, you could say that by Three Of A Perfect Pair they were venturing into what pop was in 1983.
By 1984 this version of Crimson was done but those three albums are a very defined transformation in the King Crimson and the Belew/Levin story as if it wasn't for the appregiated guitars of Belew and Fripp, the uses of Friptronics and the Chapman Stick playing of Levin, then there would be whole host of bands out there that simply wouldn't exist. For instance listen to Elephant Talk and tell me you don't hear Primus, I dare you.
Anyway this three album, three year period has gone on to influence countless bands over the years and was put to bed relatively violently so it's safe to say there's a lot of love for these records from fans. It makes sense then that Belew would want to focus on this era especially when Tony Levin was in on bass, but who to get to fill the other roles? Well on guitar it's the man who has cultivated a career as one of the most innovative guitar players around Steve Vai and behind the kit is Tool's percussion maestro Danny Carey, making BEAT a super duper group.
The first thing you notice is the fluidity, the foursome are all top level musicians and virtuosity comes in droves with every single cut, from the intertwining guitars on Frame By Frame, to the more hopeless romantic notions of Man With An Open Heart or they way they easily incorporate some mid 70's Crimson stuff such as Red or Larks Tongue In Aspic, all four are locked into every moment trying to be the best live band on the planet, which Fripp considered the 1981-1984 line up to be.
Buyer beware, unless you are fan of King Crimson, Primus, Frank Zappa or any of these experimental geniuses then BEAT will go over your head. However for any armchair musos or fans this is hell of a live treat of you couldn't get to any of the shows on the tour. LIVE is a stunning snapshot of top level musicians playing homage to half of their memberships history and the other halves inspiration. 9/10
Risen Atlantis Feat. Frank Beck - Power To The Past (Frontiers Music Srl)
Those with any sort of knowledge of traditional/heavy/power metal should know the name Frank Beck, he's been beside Kai Hansen in Gamma Ray since 2014 as a vocalist, his more soulful delivery a counterpoint to Hansen's snarl. With Gamma Ray on a bit of a hiatus due to Pumpkins United, Beck was ripe for a call from Frontiers about a new project on the label
In conversation with producer/songwriter/keyboardist/bassist and here second guitarist too, Alessandro Del Vecchio, he expressed a desire not to perform anything that may appear on a Gamma Ray record but take a more melodic style, namechecking the likes of Ronnie Atkins, Jorn Lande and Jeff Scott Soto as the major influences. Of course Del Vecchio and co-writer/guitarist Brett Jones have done exactly that tailoring the songs to fit the gritty vocals of Beck.
They along with drummer Mirko De Maio have delivered with a whole album of melodic metal, where there's a lot of the names mentioned above but done with Beck's own unique vocals. There's some muscular balladry on Trapped In Heaven, swaggering heavy rock on Sea Of Tranquillity but also some galloping power metal on the likes of Lost In Time and Glory For The Brace, which brings with Teutonic metal power and twin axe harmonies.
Another Frontiers collab project that results in gold this label so often have. Expect more from Beck and Risen Atlantis. 8/10
Kepler Ten - Random Number Generator: Episode 1 (White Star Records)
Formed by James Durand (vocals/bass/keys), Steve Hales (drums/piano) and Richie Cahill (guitars) in 2014, Kepler Ten evolved from a Rush tribute into a band of it's own that is influenced by Rush, Dream Theater and Queensryche.
Signing to Chris Hillman and John Mitchell’s White Star Records they have released two albums previously after that Ritchie left the band replaced by Mike Tillotson and then Alistair Bell. With family issues, the pandemic and isolation, Steve began writing a multi part story called Random Number Generator, the music was commented and now we have the first part of the concept in Episode 1.
Since then Alistair has left the band but his guitar remains a key part of this new 33 minute record, from the opening wash of cleans on Lost In The Binary, we're brought into this sinister, digital world of Kepler Ten, the guitars getting heavier after the keys come in, it's quite reminiscent of White Star Records founder John Mitchell's projects, so there's a continuity there as the very guitar driven track segues into some pulsating synths and percussion for Fracture.
With Fracture, Kepler Ten lean on that history of Rush, the song taking the form of some latter period Rush as well as often underrated Canadian act Tiles too. There's a real emotion that runs through this record, with tracks such as My Compass Rose, but even when they're going fully into some Dream Theater prog metal on The Truth And The Lie, the lyrics carry weight to them, creating the concept of alienation and digital dominance that this album handles.
Random Number Generator: Episode 1, is a beginning, setting out the storyline through six tracks, the most affecting of being acoustic Sobriquet, but they return to thumping electronic prog rocking on the 7 minute finale SuperVoid. It's a great return for Kepler Ten with this new record but going forward they'll be completing the next parts in their original guise as Richie has returned to the band.
So this next chapters may have more in common with their earlier records, or maybe they won't that's the excitement of progressive music and Kepler Ten for me. 8/10
Rubi Ate The Fig - Desert Electric (Self Released)
Some Bedouin Blues Rock now from the sort of artist that would feature heavily at WOMAD festival. Rubi Ate The Fig is the creation of vocalist/songwriter/guitarist/producer Sharon Eliashar, born in Jerusalem, raised in California, both of these cultural identities make their way into her songwriting with the blissful psych of the Grateful Dead or Jefferson Airplane, fused with Middle Eastern traditional elements that have been inspired by her time alongside the Bedouin in the Sinai desert.
With the experimental ear of Peter Gabriel, there's lots to like here for fans of Goat, Tinariwen and SOBO. Sharon states that all her songs are about "love, sex or death" and it's this dangerous mix of the erotic and exotic that draws you in with sultry atmospheres on tracks such as Gilgamesh, Breathe With Me Slowly and the Zeppelin-like drama of Caress The Moon.
This is Desert Electric after all so there's rock meets Middle East riffs coming from the incredibly talented band featuring Marc Mann (guitars/keys/vocals/orchestration/production) who is a long time collaborator of Danny Elfman, Rich Mouser (guitar/engineer/production) a noted engineer and player.
Ali Paris takes the Qanun, a 76-string Zither, that fills out the third lead instrument role getting some solo sections. Behind this is the bass/saz/cello of Miles Jay, the hand percussion (dumbeq/frame drum/riqq) from Polly Tapia Ferber and drums that come from Danny Montgomery who has performed with Percy Sledge and Taj Mahal.
This record has had a torrid history as the L.A wild fires meant much of the original recordings were lost, but they managed to piece together an album that skilfully blends multiple elements, the husky strains of Sharon's vocals carrying these love songs from the desert which have been a long time coming. If you've ever loved anything from The Tea Party then you'll love Rubi At The Fig, let's hope the next record doesn't take 5 years. 8/10
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